50 Books Challenge 2026 Part One

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the first thread of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2026, though reading fifty isn't mandatory. Any type of book can count, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

If possible, please can you embolden your titles and maybe authors as well of books you've read or going to read? It makes it much easier to keep track, especially when the threads move quickly at this time of the year.

1. Raising Hare - a nice start the year as I'm missing my time in the garden. Lots of lovely details about the natural world, and suitably gentle for the lazy days before the real world rears its head again.

Oh I AM sorry @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupiefor light I enjoy Abby Jimenez but I don’t think she’s your thing. The Names is brilliant but not light. What did you do? At least you get a few more days off?!

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupieMaybe, just maybe, Deep Cuts by Holly Brinkley might be your thing. I’ve started the audio but annoyingly I have run out of audiobook hours on Spotify but I was really enjoying it.

Oh @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie - what awful luck! I hope you are on the mend soon. Would some Nora Ephron cheer you up?

Many Happy Returns @MamaNewtNewt - what a lovely selection of books.

@ÚlldemoShúl I'm glad Wolf Hall was worth the wait. I love it so much.

Also right up with the zeitgeist I have kicked off the year with a 2020 Booker nominee: 1.Burnt Sugar by Avon Doshi. Antara, an artist living in Pune, India, is coming to terms with her mother Tara’s gradual decline into dementia. As her mother’s condition worsens, Antara reflects on her mother’s domineering character and unconventional lifestyle, which have caused trauma that continues to affect Antara to this day, and she struggles to care for a mother who often did not care for her.

This was an odd little book. I found the writing sharp, elegant, and witty. Doshi has a good ear for dialogue, with lots of very darkly comic moments alongside the obvious bleakness. I struggled more with the characters. I assume it was a deliberate choice not to explore Tara’s character beyond Antara’s memories of her from childhood, but I also felt that I didn’t get to know Antara well either. As a fan of short, snappy books I almost never say this but I felt it was too brief.

Blimey, @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie , hope your wait isn’t too long.
Many Happy Returns @MamaNewtNewt !

I am off to Waterstones tomorrow armed with many book tokens. I shall choose wisely…..

Happy birthday @MamaNewtNewt
Hugs @EineReiseDurchDieZeit for your feeling of connection with the horrible things in The Names

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie oh no! Hope it's not too long a wait for you. When my mum is feeling low, she always reaches for Wodehouse - any good? They're just so silly and SAFE.

My second read of 2026 is The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell. It's the story of Lucrezia de' Medici, believed to be the woman in the portrait described in Browning's My Last Duchess. She was married off at 15 to the older Duke of Ferrara, and a year later was dead - officially of a fever, but rumoured to have been murdered by her husband.

The narrative jumps back and forth from Lucrezia's childhood in Florence, the early days of her marriage, and the days leading up to her death. The atmosphere in all three is claustrophobic and suffocating, as Lucrezia is passed from her uptight aristocratic family to her coercive controlling husband.

It's a couple of years since I read Hamnet but from memory I would say the here is similar - intense, present-tense narration with a deliberately over-rich use of imagery, leading to an almost hallucinatory feel.

Interesting that Wolf Hall has come up today as this was what I was mentally comparing it to while reading. I would say both authors have skilfully captured that awful paranoid, confined atmosphere that we associate with C16th courts, where loyalties can suddenly change, and a single unwise word or action can have serious consequences. Mantel, I think, does this quite coolly, whereas O'Farrell kind of chucks the baby, the bathwater and the rubber duck at your head to make her point.

I did enjoy it, but I'm exhausted!

Oh no @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie No book suggestions but good wishes.

Thank you @VikingNorthUtsire things not quite as bad as in the novel but certainly not normal either

Hope you recover quickly remus!

I did enjoy The Hallmarked Man, though it was essentially four separate mysteries all interwoven into one overlong book. I confess though that this is the first book in the series where I got irritated by the Robin/Strike relationship - Robin in particular willfully misremembering and misinterpreting Strike’s intentions. Felt a bit like a teenage romance, similar to the way she wrote the Ron/Hermione relationship in HP, rather than the way actual grown ups behave.

I think I read House on the Strand many many years ago. I remember it stayed with me for a while afterwards - following the discussion up thread I might do a re-read.

My last read of 2025 was Michael Connelly’s The Proving Ground. Interesting and topical choice of subject matter - the responsibilities of companies developing AI companions for teenagers - but not one of his best.

My TBR is the physical books and kindle books I own but haven’t read. I have many, many of these having been a regular book buyer for most of my adult life.

2 The Wedding People by Alison Espach

This was an impulse buy on Kindle. A depressed Phoebe checks into a fancy hotel and finds out she is the only non-wedding guest there. Initially the bride is horrified, but then Phoebe gets drawn into into a complex relationship with the bride, groom and relatives. The story itself is very predictable, but does try to tackle some difficult themes in a sensitive way. It didn’t work completely for me though - while failed IVF presumably triggered her depression, all the backstory focusses on is the relationship with her now ex-husband. I also think the author was trying a bit too hard to be literary (the references and parallels with Mrs Dalloway and Jane Eyre, for example) but it was still an enjoyable read.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie - Ouch, hope it's not too long a wait and not too bad a break. Think I would be reading Georgette Heyer as amusing easy reading.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie I hope A&E fix you promptly and efficiently and you are home soon.

I am also going to join the Never Read Wolf Hall Club and feel weirdly guilty about it. I have read a lot of fiction and non-fiction about the Tudors, loved Shardlake, Alison weir etc, but like @TattiePants I think I am a bit put off by the perception that it will be too much effort to read. My friend LOVES it, and its sequels and can't believe I haven't read it.
I have finished a Dickens today though, so.....

3. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens I have been listening on Audible over Christmas - read by Stephen Fry which was an absolute joy. I have read extracts, seen film and TV versions, but it occurred to me that I had never actually read the full unabridged version before. I loved Oliver Twist and I did the David Copperfield readalong a few years ago. I’m sure everyone knows the story of the boy Pip, apprentice to a blacksmith, who helps an escaped convict as a child, then becomes the favourite of the mysterious Miss Havisham, then a mysterious benefactor sets him up as a gentleman. Excellent yarn. Have learnt that I do better with Dickens on Audible especially when there is a good narrator.

My issue with Robin and Strike is that, the backdrop of this supposedly great love, and the reason they’re meant to be so hesitant to take that step, is on account of their incredible friendship that they don’t want to jeapordise. They’re each other’s ’best friend’. And yet it’s been many a book since we saw them acting like friends! They don’t tell each other anything! They barely interact at times, just brood and suspect the other but don’t actually talk. I’d find it a more convincing will they won’t they if we saw more glimpses of the actual friendship and of them interacting like adults rather than inventing obstacles and behaving like stroppy teenagers.

Ouch @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie - hope you’re on the mend soon. I don’t remember if you liked Circe by Madeleine Miller, maybe not your thing? But that would be a nice cheer me up type book I think? Or rather dated but I listened to some of the Roderick Alleyn books by Ngaio Marsh last year which were easy, entertaining reads if you like the golden age of crime type stuff.

Oh no @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie, I hope it's not too painful. Would a bit of 84, Charing Cross Road cheer you up do you think?

Blimey @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie not the best start to the year for you, hoping it’s not a ‘serious’ break and that you feel better soon. It sounds like comfort reads are definitely in order, when I broke my ankle I listened to all of the St Mary’s books on Audible. Not sure if you listen to many books but Audible might be a good way to go if you struggle to hold books with your wrist. Not sure when you last read The Dark Tower series, I think you were reading roughly the same time as me a few years ago but that could be an option. I struggled with reading The Gunslinger but adored the audible version.

Thanks all for the birthday wishes, much appreciated. After braving the cold for breakfast I’ve lazed about all day eating chocolates and reading - bliss!

thanks everyone. Badly broken in two places, but I'm home and the hospital were great. excuse lack of capital letters. I'll check recommendations properly tomorrow but read Charing Cross road just a few weeks ago, or it would've been perfect.

Happy birthday @MamaNewtNewt and sympathy, @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie . How about some Jack Reacher, so you can swagger around as if the injury was caused by single-handedly taking on an entire cartel?

Ouch @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie. How did you manage that? It’s very icy here today. Comfort rereading is called for I feel. Have you read Into Thin Air again recently? Or Bill Bryson - Down Under always my go-to when I need cheering up.

Oh @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie!! Take care. No suggestions, just sending healing thoughts in your direction 💐

That’s a serious pain in the proverbials, @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie, not to mention the wrist. Sympathies. I can’t remember whether you've read Business as Usual by Jane Oliver and Ann Stafford? Good fun and with a London-based book theme.
If not, there are a few more in the British Library Women Writers series that includes Strange Journey, which I seem to recall you did read. I'm toying with starting another of the lighter ones of those. I really enjoyed One Year's Time by Angela Milne, although it’s not totally light-hearted….

1. I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue.

This was an enjoyable first read of the year. Not too taxing and quite predictable, but a fun enough feel good story. The protagonist, Jolene, was a bit of an arsehole at first but I warmed to her as the book went on. I'd probably be begging for a redundancy payment if I worked at Supershops Incorporated!

Next on the list is North Woods by Daniel Mason.

Oh flipping heck @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie . I hope you're not in too much pain. I found The Lark by E Nesbit very diverting when ill; it's a light hearted friendship escapade / romance.

@HagCymraeg Great Expectations is a real favourite of mine. What a cast of characters and I always love a protagonist trying to fit into an unfamiliar world.

@Zilla74 Shy Creatures was in my top 10 for last year. I'm keen to read Small Pleasures this year.

And re the Wolf Hall chat, I have Bringing Up the Bodies on the TBR shelf but no rush to get started honestly! I'm daunted by it!

3. Box Hill by Adam Mars-Jones

This was a Christmas gift, a novella of around 100 pages, and I found it quite surprising. Colin has just turned 18 when he becomes involved with the BDSM biker scene in 1970s Surrey. It got unexpectedly explicit very fast and the "love story" is full of abuse, secrecy and consent issues. I still found it touching and thought provoking in the way it dealt sensitively with dependency, loss, and loneliness.

Also a Bill Bryson fan (A Walk in the Woods) or A Bookshop of One’s Own (to continue the Charing X Road theme)

Do anyone else's numbers keep getting auto corrected to "1" ?
I'm on mobile and it's convinced I'm making an error until I edit it back again.